


Psychosis

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-19
Updated: 2009-08-19
Packaged: 2019-01-19 11:26:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12409443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: Involves potential disembodied voices and sort of modern gestures.  All of which takes place in a pub.





	Psychosis

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

“Well hi there.  Need any company over here?”

She shot a glance out of the corner of her eye at the (hopefully) disembodied voice.  But, as these things go, she probably wouldn’t experience that here, in the middle of a chaotic pub.  It was only logical that the voice had a body.  

Damn.  

She’d quite like to experience a disembodied voice. 

“Hello to you, too.  And no, company’s really not necessary, me getting all caught up in my thoughts on a day like this.  Really, feel free to spare yourself a most uninteresting conversation.  Well, actually, me being all caught in my thoughts on a day like this, there’d probably be no conversation at all and wouldn’t that be dull?”

_Why, yes, it would be.  Good day, Lily Evans_ , she imagined him replying.  He would tip his imaginary hat at her and be out that door, lickety split. 

“It so happens that I get all caught up in my thoughts on a day like this, too, so I think I’ll just sit here and…contemplate my thoughts,” he grinned and tipped an imaginary hat at her. 

Well…there was that, at least. 

There were a few moments of silence in which the lights of the pub flickered twice and a tall bloke with bad skin nearly spilled his butterbeer on her.  A pleasant day, all around.

“Pint?”

“No, thank you.”

“Please.”

“Fine.  Half pint, though.  You’re probably trying to get me drunk, knowing you.”

“Ah, can’t hold your drink then, Evans?”

“No, Potter.  I was…not implying that.  I was wounding your dignity.”

“You’re doing a smashing job of it.  Quite clever.  Cunning…now that’s a good word.”

“I have to agree.”

A beat.

“So…what’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?”

“The same thing a boy like you is doing in a place like this.”

“You’re no fun today, Evans.”

“I thought we’d already established that.”

“Well, it was looking up when you were wounding my dignity.  I had hope.  It was crushed.”

“As was mine.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, quite.  I thought for a moment there that I might be experiencing a disembodied voice.  But I wasn’t.  You were the body.  Sadly,” she peered down at my drink that Rosmerta had just sat in front of her.  She really hadn’t wanted this.

“What a strange thing to think.”

“Again, I have to agree.  Still, I trust that it will happen one day.”

“Yeah?  Owl me if it does.”

“You’ll be sure to know, one way or another.”

“Aw, you won’t owl me?”

“I will probably have forgotten due to time and because of the excitement of fulfilling a lifelong dream.”

“Been a goal of yours for a while then?”

“Yes, quite.”

He laughed here and said, “Evans, you are quite the girl,” before shoving his hands into a pair of gloves and wrapping his scarf around his neck.  “I’ll see you.”

He grinned at her again and walked out the door.

“Wait!” she yelled and began to go after him but was held up momentarily by Rosmerta (“Oi! You haven’t paid yet!”). “Stupid bugger,” she muttered as she slapped some coins down onto the bar and ran out into the snow.

Snow had been falling for hours now and the moment she put her foot down in it, it soaked her stockings through to the skin.  _Merlin_ , it was cold.  

She peered through the near blizzard and made out his figure several metres away as he stood in front of a shop window.

“Oi! Potter!” she yelled.  He turned around, surprised.  She jogged up to him, glaring, shoving her hat onto her head.  “Thought you’d let me foot the bill, then?”

He looked stricken for a moment and said, “Oh Evans, I’m so sorry.  Here, how much was it?” He rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a few coins. “Yeah?”

“Erm, no.  It’s fine.”

“No, really.  I insist,” he replied earnestly, shoving the coins in her direction.

 “No.  Sorry.  I feel stupid now.  It’s not a problem.  Bit modern though, isn’t it?  Buying a bloke a drink?”

He stared at her for a long moment, his hand still outstretched.  He slowly deposited the coins back into his pocket, breaking out into a grin that could only be matched by a lunatic.  “You,” he said, looking at her over his glasses and pointing at her, “are quite the girl, Evans.”

She smiled back pleasantly while she tried to wedge her pinky finger into its correct spot in her glove.

“Yes, quite.”


End file.
